Nineteen days and counting. The dial is ticking inexorably towards publication
of The Big Miss, the tell-all Hank Haney memoir that promises to
remould popular perceptions of Tiger Woods.

“There was an air of mystery around him, an aura of invincibility,” publishers Random House explain, breathlessly. “Hank’s most formidable challenge would be solving the riddle of Tiger’s personality.”

On March 27 the book will seek to fill in the gaping lacunae in our knowledge of perhaps the most gifted and yet least knowable athlete ever.

For 110 days a year, Haney was not merely coaching Woods, but observing him in almost every scenario — at the practice range, over dinner, relaxing with wife Elin, or shooting the breeze with friends.

It is no surprise that the corps of American golf writers, who shadow the every move of Woods the public figure, are awaiting precious recollections of the private man with such relish.

Small wonder, either, that Team Tiger view Haney’s decision to speak out as a betrayal, tantamount to a violation of the doctor-patient relationship.

Every time Woods is asked about the book, he snaps or stonewalls, eyes boring through his inquisitor with a glassy stare. He is hurt by Haney’s lack of discretion purely because it breaches his own forcefield.

As he did throughout the six-year collaboration with his former coach, Woods takes pains to ensure that nobody — sometimes, not even his family and friends — is allowed too close. As one US reporter put it to me yesterday: “The guy has the public relations instincts of a wolverine.”

For an illustration, we need search no further than the experience of Jaime Diaz, the journalist who served as Haney’s ghostwriter.

Diaz, a long-time contributor to Golf Digest, has enjoyed unparalleled access to the Tiger camp, even speaking at the memorial service for Earl Woods.

But it was at a far earlier juncture that he formed a lasting impression of Woods Jnr.

Writing a profile for his magazine, Diaz first encountered Woods the young prodigy in a car park at Coto de Caza, the southern California course close to the 14 year-old’s family home.

Later that day, over lunch, Diaz would try to stress to Woods the importance of maintaining an open dialogue with the media. “He listened impassively. Then he asked with a pained expression, ‘Why do they have to know everything?’ ”

It was a remark so emblematic of his character that it could yet serve as an epitaph upon his career.

Woods, at 36, pulls down the shutters on his soul as far as ever, withholding rather than illuminating, while proving that the infamous mea culpa that followed his sex scandal was simply a vapid PR exercise.

Even in first TV interview after that episode, with ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi, he batted away inquiries about his car crash and sex addiction clinic, calling them “private matters”.

So it is a blessed relief, given this tradition of Woods obfuscation, to find a rather different persona ensconced at the summit of golf.

Rory McIlroy has demonstrated, by his demeanour here at Doral this week, that he is every inch the world No 1 that Woods was not: patient, amenable, open, generous and obliging.

For 40 minutes on Tuesday night he held forth on an array of disparate subjects, from how he handled stardom to what he felt on the eighth hole at Augusta as he slid towards his Masters unravelling.

During his first four days at No 1, McIlroy has shown model conduct for a figure in his exalted position.

It is hard to imagine, for instance, that Woods would have done anything so spontaneous as his heir from Northern Ireland managed on Monday, emerging from the crowd at Madison Square Garden to play tennis with girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki.

Woods refuses to be seen in the wider world with anything other than his game face. McIlroy, by contrast, inspires by his natural insouciance.

Harris English, like McIlroy, is 22 and played alongside him at the final round of last weekend’s Honda Classic, where victory sealed the No 1 ranking.

The American rookie could scarcely have been more effusive. “Playing with Rory was awesome,” he said. “He did everything right.

"It was an honour to be there and I will learn from it. It’s great for people my age and younger. It’s a hell of an incentive for all the young guys.

"For the 15 year-olds to see that Rory is No 1 is fantastic. Growing up, we had Tiger to look at. Now these kids have Rory.”

McIlroy, if he did not know it already, is the inspiration to golf’s next generation.

The burden is one he will carry, you sense, a little more lightly than his predecessor.